System Randomly Rebooting

[Insanemonk3y]

Hi I'm trying to fix a friends computer that will just reboot randomly while in windows.... I don't exactly know the specs of the computer as someone else had built it for her but this is what I've found...

Intel D875PBZ Mobo w/ P4 3.0
2x512 pc3200 ram
GeForce 5600FX w/ 128mb
2 SATA HD's in RAID 01
Onboard Audio and LAN in use
Windows XP Pro

At first glance I thought it was maybe an overheating issue, possibly the processor imparticularly, but the harddrives are mounted right next to each other and were extremely hot so I installed a couple of fans to increase cooling which didn't help. I also checked out the processor's temp in teh bios and its running at around 36C which isn't too bad with the stock intel heatsink. The only thing that seems weird about that is the guy who built the comp "doesn't remember" but says that he usually uses thermal paste and it doesn't sound like he took off the paraffin heatpad that comes on the bottom of stock heatsinks, weird but it doesn't look like its overheating. I also started to pull the RAM... after having one stick in it the problem persisted, now trying the other stick.. so far no problems but its only been about 12 hrs. I also tried checking to see if it was maybe a software/adware/virus problem.. the comp tests clean on those fronts. When I looked in system information there were only two problems reported and they were old IE hangs. When checking device manager there is one splat.. apparantly there are no USB drivers... I checked Intel's site and there are no USB drivers listed for XP, any suggestion on finding those?? I'm at a loss as to why whoever built it put her HD's into a raid array.. thats so unnecessary for the simple tasks the comp is being used for. Eh I'm also not sure if it could be a Powersupply problem the case is new so i assume it's wattage is higher than at least 300w.. In an systems monitor I took a look at the voltage for a bit and it seemed stable at the correct amounts.. I wish i had a multimeter but I'm at college and those don't seem to be lying around in the halls Please leave any suggestions because if it wasn't that stick of RAM or overheating HD's I don't know how to tell whats wrong at this point.. Thanks

 

[Aleksandar]

Whell it can be software related
Update the motherboard drivers lan sound Ect.
see if there is any new update for the bios.
Now the hard side it can be the psu but that is a small chance since you see the voltages are ok
The hard drives i think are ok unless they are 10.000Rpm ones they create more heat

And what brand antivirus do you use?
did you try using Spybot - Search & Destroy to search 4 spyware there is not one program that can find all spyware on a pc so try thisone to.

i cant think of anything else that can go wrong But hey if this dosent help consider it as a "Bump"

 

[Zepper]

If it's a hardware problem, random rebooting is usually due to RAM or PSU. Can also be a virus or worm.

.bh.

 

[Insanemonk3y]

Spybot and Adaware tests came back negative (already had them on the comp) and I think that the harddrives are only the 7200rpm'ers. I think I might take you up on trying to update all of her intel drivers though... I'm hoping its just her Ram because its now been 20 hrs since a reboot so it looks promising that the other stick just has a bad dimm. Thanks for the suggestions guys!